1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor light emitting device that includes a semiconductor light emitting element such as a light emitting diode, and a method for producing the semiconductor light emitting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, semiconductor light emitting devices such as the light emitting diodes (hereinafter also referred to as LEDs), which have low power consumption, are becoming more popular instead of conventional filament lamps in general lighting lamp applications. The applications of semiconductor light emitting devices broaden to light sources for vehicles from lights sources for lighting.
FIGS. 11 and 12 show an example of the semiconductor light emitting device (see WO2012/014,382 A1). This semiconductor light emitting device includes a lead frame 81; a semiconductor element 83 held by the lead frame 81; a frame body 82 formed on the lead frame 81 to surround the semiconductor element 83, cover a side surface of the lead frame 81, and expose a bottom surface of the lead frame 81; and a protective resin (not shown) filling a region surrounded by the frame body. The lead frame 81 includes a die pad section 81A, and a lead section 81B. The die pad section 81A, and the lead section 81B are arranged away from each other and fixed to the lead body 82 so that they are electrically isolated from each other. The die pad section 81A is longer than the lead 81B. The semiconductor element 83 is mounted on the upper surface of the die pad portion 81A having a larger area.
After resin is formed as the frame bodies 82 on the lead frames 81, as shown in FIG. 13, the lead frames 81 are cut from each other along the single-dot-dashed lines in FIG. 13 so that the semiconductor light emitting devices are manufactured. However, in the process for manufacturing the semiconductor light emitting devices, as shown in a bottom view of FIG. 14, a crack 85 may be produced in the peripheral edge part on the lead 81B side, or the like by a shock when cutting the lead frames 81 from each other (see the arrows A in FIG. 12). This crack 85 may cause quality deficiencies, which may lead to reduce the reliability of the semiconductor light emitting element.
See also Laid-Open Patent Publication No. JP 2012-209,377 A.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor light emitting device including a resin package that can be effectively prevented from being damaged by a shock when an external force is applied to a lead frame whereby improving its reliability, and a method for producing the semiconductor light emitting device.